Long Spoon, and Another Cedar Project

 You don't know you need a long spoon until you get one and then wonder how you lived without it. Big pots of chilli, stew and simmering fruit all need a long spoon to reach deep into the pot's corners while keeping your hands happy and safe. 

  This one is walnut, finished with Hemp Oil. I shaped the spoon mostly with knives after roughing it out on the band saw.  Hollowing out the bowl of the spoon is a job for my Dremel Tool. I like using walnut for spoons because it is fairly hard and yet it is easy to get a glass smooth finish.

  We have several hand made spoons in the kitchen drawers now and it is surprising how often it is better to have a slightly longer, or stouter spoon at hand.

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  I have been working away with my found cedar. Yesterday another project emerged that suits found cedar.  This time I cut the strips on the table saw, I am leaning toward hand tools, but haven't fallen in totally. 

BOOT CLIPS revisited. 2014 March first visit.

  Winter has arrived and so it is tall boot season. 

  The boot clip is like a extra large clothes peg.  It keeps soft boots from flopping over, taking too much space by the door or in the closet.

   The design is two long pieces with a spacer in between. Once I got the boards cut into strips I used my hand planes to clean up and smooth the wood and a shop knife and files to round various edges. 

jack and smoothing plane.

  I think cedar is the perfect wood for these holders and it planes nicely. I'm making 6,  almost no noise and lovely shavings.  I have a Anant Jack plane with an up graded blade and a Veritas low angle smoother. (thanks Santa)  For a couple of years I was the Canadian Importer of Anant planes.  I always frond them to be good general carpentry tools.

  Time to think about some more quick Christmas gifts from the shop.

cheers ianw

  

Why Wood, again.

  If you've read many of my blogs you know that I have a deep and abiding love of wood.  Wood is beautiful to see, smell and touch.  It also is a material that is easy and cost effective to shape and form as well as a sturdy building material. Know what else? When wood is properly cared for it has a much longer life than most 'low maintenance' materials.  

  What brought this whole thing on was three flower boxes from our back patio.

  In these three boxes live seasonal plants from our living room from late spring 'til late Autumn.  Two of the boxes are cedar and the small one is cedar with oak corners. These boxes have lived outside year round for many years.

 

    First each box needed to be brushed firmly with a wire brush and then the bug bits cleared out from inside.  There was even the beginnings of a wasp's nest in one of the boxes. A couple of the boards needed to be re-nailed and there were screws to tighten but...with a good coat of Flecto Danish Oil the boxes are as good as new and ready for several more years.  Have you noticed how quickly plastic flower pots and boxes become brittle and useless?  I have.

  

  This tin reminds me of a shop tip I want to share.  Whenever I go to the Re-Store, or any place that sells paint and finishes (big box store included) I check to see that they are selling cheap.  I seldom pay more than a couple of bucks a gallon for my utility latex paint.  I use the grossest  purples and greenish greys you can imagine for base coats or to seal the ends on boards.  Why use full price paint when it is going to be covered later or cut away.  Also when I see anything like this danish oil on super clearance I buy it to stain/treat things that live outside.  I have one more part tin on my shelf so I need to actively look out for some more product.  

  That is another bonus to wood.  With careful consideration, it can be a cheap as well as satisfying medium in which to work.

  To go along with my 'I love wood theme', here is a photo showing some of my wife's current set of kitchen tools for souping, stewing and mixing stuff.

  Looking at this I am reminded that  we've got several spreaders that I made and my grand daughters all have scaled down tools too.  Once the cheap plastic handles break on silicon spatulas I replace those handles as well.

  I have a tonne of tools that I have gathered up over time but.....there is lots if interesting and satisfying wood working possible with a few tools and heart felt desire. Nothing feels better on a wet cold day than mixing your home made soup with a spoon you made yourself.

 cheers,

ianw

sturdy veggie soup.

  

 

14 1/2 inch Spoon - three hours sanding

  I was looking for a smaller project and again one that was quiet.  Carving  wooden spoons verges on therapy , with the added bonus of ending up with something useful.

  Carving a spoon is fairly basic wood working and doesn't require many tools. It is something that I encourage everyone to try. 

  I begin by roughly drawing the shape of the spoon on the piece of wood, after smoothing the wood just to see if there are cracks or knots.  Once I draw out the shape I begin to hollow out the bowl of the spoon. It is my experience that it is easier to clamp the board and gouge out the general shape of the bowl before cutting the outside shape.  This time I used my band saw to rough out the shape and then my hatchet  to get close to the lines and get the basic roundness.

the spoon's overall shape is now set.

I prefer to come to the final shape with blades, knives, draw knives, hatchet etc rather than use the band saw.  When the final shape is arrived at with blades the grain plays a bigger part.  The band saw will cut anything you want were the blades are influenced by the wood grain, so I think the shape is stronger and more natural when the grain is considered in the shaping.

  I figure this spoon to be half way done. The bowl is in its final form and it only remains to shape the handle and do final sanding.  To shape the handle I use various knives, planes and the axe.

 I scraped and sanded this spoon by hand for three hours. I know it was three hours because I was listening to Ken Burns' Roosevelts  mini series on my tablet. It turns out that this stick was really hard wood, maple I think and so it was slow to work. Slow work but the result is silk smooth to the touch and strong as iron, it will mix soup and stew for a very long time.

  The weather is getting cooler and the yard work is winding down so I think I'll get back into the shop more seriously.

cheers, ianw

Wooden Spoons and Spatulas

 My wife is a very talented cook and baker and it seems she has  passed her passion  onto our Grand daughter Clara.  Clara's brother Kieran likes to make stuff in the shop and last year he and I made a tool box together.  Over the last few years he has been getting tools for his tools box.

  This year it is Clara's turn to began acquiring tools for her work in the kitchen. 

   The last couple of evenings have been spent making smaller sized kitchen tools for Clara for Christmas.

  

  These are some of the tools I've made in my shop recently.  The spatula in the middle is full sized, the other ones are about half as long, but 2/3 as large.  The shorter handles will help small hands keep things under control more easily.

  There are many, many videos on You tube showing ways to make wooden spoons.  I looked at a bunch of them for method and inspiration.  

  First I traced the shapes on a clear grained piece of Poplar and cut it out on the band saw. 

For the spatulas the band saw was the last power tool I used.  A jig saw, a scroll saw or a coping saw could also do the job, and not much more slowly. So don't abandon making these things just because you don't have a band saw. 

  Once the pieces were cut out I shaped them with knives, small planes and mostly with sand paper.  You could equally use a spoke shave, I didn't because I have not become skilled with one or a draw knife. The draw knives I inherited are to large to use comfortably on small projects like this.

   The spoon, I shaped with somewhat greater modern savagery.  I wanted a rounded handle for the spoon and needed to shape the bowl and so roughed it into shape on my 36 inch belt sander.  A smaller power sander would also work or you could use my favourite rough carving tool, the Nicholson 4 in 1 rasp.  I bought my 4 in 1 rasp early, early on when I began gathering tools and have used it as much and more than many other tools. 

  Projects like these are labours of love and so I listen to music and work at a fairly causal pace while completing them.  As you can see from the bench I used lots of tools and didn't worry about efficiency.

  There is everything from knives and rasps to shreds of sand paper and coffee cups on that bench.  I used the tooth brush to clear fine wood dust out of 320- 500 grit sand paper. Since I did some serious whittling at the roughing stage I wore my carving gloves with their added leather finger tips.  You can also see two large needle files on the work surface as well as 60 grit, 120 grit, 220 grit, 320 grit and 500 grit sand paper.  Were I making these tools for money I doubt  I would sand much past 220 grit, but for family 500 grit seemed appropriate. And incidentally this piece of poplar sanded as smooth as glass.

  As an unromantic foot note  I used my Dremel tool and a ball shaped bit to rough out the inside of the spoon.  Yes, I have gouges and a hook knife, (somewhere) but my dewy eyed hand tool romanticism does have limits. I do like my variable speed Dremel tool with its flexible tool shaft. 

  This is another personal project that can be made with limited tools and at limited cost.  Every  time that spoon or spatula is used the maker will be remembered. Don't we all want to be remember?

cheers, ianw